


what do tapeworms sound like?

by GayKravitz



Category: Daredevil (TV), Deadpool - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Actual child matt murdock, Gen, Humor, Matt Doesn’t Whine, Team Red, light and fluffy, meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 09:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18753304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GayKravitz/pseuds/GayKravitz
Summary: Matt had a problem.alt title: peter parker should never be given prescription pain medication





	what do tapeworms sound like?

**Author's Note:**

> have more daredevil plus venom in there cus i love eddie brock. this just started from an idea of what venom would sound like inside of eddie, from matt’s point of view.
> 
> edit: alright who let me name this fic “tapeworm defense squad” last night. i want names.

Matt had a problem.

He was trying to ignore it. He really, _really_ was. Foggy had to know how hard he was trying right now. But something had entered his natural awareness radius, the zone in which he could hear everything without having to strain. It was something so _other_ and wrong it made him want to bare his _teeth_ and snarl at it for daring to enter _his_ city. He wanted to jump from the window right now and chase it down and make it regret ever coming near Hell’s Kitchen.

The thought made Matt clench his fist so tight the pencil in it snapped. Foggy gave him a look, probably a glare but it was hard to tell, while Karen kept explaining something to the client they were with. Matt just scowled and tried to look somewhat apologetic even if he didn’t mean it.

Fogs had noticed immediately that something was wrong with him, when he tensed suddenly in the middle of the meeting and his head darted to the side to bear his ear more towards the thing. He pursed his lips and Foggy immediately knew he recognized a threat and began trying to rush things along with the client without seeming suspicious. Matt consciously and wholeheartedly appreciated him for a second before diverting his whole attention to the threat.

It was walking. He could hear the steps of a bipedal humanoid figure. Sneakers, light rubber. The swishing of a leather jacket as it’s arms moved. Breathing, heartbeat, bones, muscle, tendons, blood. All the makings of a normal human. He can’t smell it yet, it’s too far, but from he can hear it. He can hear it talking. A soft mutter, probably keeping it to itself.

“-told you we can’t… no, no I never said that… come on, V, don’t get pissy.”

See, Matt can tell when people are talking on the phone. He can hear the buzz of phone screens, he can hear the other side of the conversation, he can feel the vibrations of a speaker- this guy, this thing? There was nothing. So either it was using some piece of communication technology he’s never seen or heard of before, or it was talking to something no one else could hear.

Matt heard all the normal human sounds from it, yes, but there was something else. A slithering, oily, something. Like millions, billions of snakes covered in oil were slipping between this guy’s organs. It sounded like they were moving between his muscles, his joints, the marrow of his bones. It made a shudder run down Matt’s spine.

As it got closer, Matt clenched his jaw. He was absently aware of the meeting coming to a close, of standing up with everyone else and helping the client to the door, of Foggy closing the new Nelson, Murdock, and Page office door, right before Foggy closed in on him.

“Matt, what’s wrong?” He asked, finally, finally.

“There’s… something. Dangerous something.” Matt worked his jaw, listening to the soft muttering and slick writhing inside of the man. “It’s… it sounds so wrong. It’s- it’s not human, but it looks like it.”

“What? Where?” Karen is alarmed immediately, stepping closer to him. He can smell Foggy beginning to sweat nervously immediately.

“Close. It’s really close.” Matt murmured, furrowing his brow. “It’s talking to someone that’s not there.”

“Could it possibly just be a crazy homeless guy with a parasite?” Foggy asked, hopeful.

“No,” Matt shook his head. “No, I know what parasites sound like, my neighbor had one. Couldn’t eat at home for weeks. It’s- it’s nothing like this. Not even close.”

The thing was closing in. It was walking down the street parallel to the one their office resided on, the soft muttering having ceased. It was coming up on an intersection- their intersection. Matt made a silent prayer that it wouldn’t turn right.

…

It turned right.

“It’s coming here.” Matt hissed out, quickly loosening his tie and moving himself between Foggy, Karen, and the door. “Stay behind me.”

“Matt, would a gun hurt it?” Karen whispered, pulling her purse off the desk.

“I don’t know.” He admitted, listening to it’s easy steps as it stopped right in front of their building. “Keep it close.”

He felt Karen nod sharply, and Foggy’s heart rate increased when she put her hand gingerly inside of the bag.

“It’s coming up the stairs.” Matt narrated, listening. He could smell it, smelled it when it turned the corner. Smelled human- like sweat and cologne and motel bodywash. Yet, again, there was an undertone that made his stomach churn. He couldn’t place the smell, which was such a rare moment for him it was startling.

He didn’t know the smell. He, who trained with Stick. Stick, who would force him to smell things until his nose hurt and he could identify what lunch that the factory worker who packaged whatever it was had. He didn’t recognize the smell. It almost scared him as much as not being able to hear the Hand’s heartbeats.

He tensed, hearing it walk down the hall to their door. Both Karen and Foggy gasped quietly when the thing stepped in front of the door, presumably visible through the frosted glass. Matt grimaced and pressed his friends closer towards the corner of the lobby, preparing for the door to be bust down any second.

The door handle twisted. Everyone held their breaths. It opened.

A man stepped through the threshold.

“Uh.” He said, pausing in the doorway. “Am I, like, interrupting something?”

Matt exhaled, his body remaining tense. He could hear it so much more clearly. The writhing, slimy, nest of tendrils swirling around this guy’s entire body. Every gush of blood, every creak of joints, every bat of an eyelash- it was there, in him. Or- or was it him? They were so meshed together it was hard for Matt to tell if the snakes were the guy or something else entirely.

“What the hell are you?” Matt blurted out, completely ignoring his cool confrontation plan.

“Dude, what?” He sounded baffled.

“You- you’re wrong. You sound so _wrong_.” Matt stepped closer to him, tilting his head. Jesus Christ. “What the fuck is in you?”

The guy spluttered. “In- In me?”

Matt ignored him in favor of moving his ear closer to the dudes chest, getting close enough to almost touch, when a harsh rumble- a growl- sent him moving backwards. Even the guy was surprised, and flinched. The slithering got louder, more agitated.

“What the fuck?” Matt and the guy echoed each other.

“Oh my god.” The guy sounded scared, now. “Please tell me you didn’t just hear that. Please.”

“What was that?” Matt was more curious than afraid now, and tried to inch closer again, when the growl happened again. “Are you- are you growling at me?”

“Oh my god, what the fuck, this guy can fucking hear you?” He whispered to himself, but Matt heard it.

“Hear who? Who can I hear? Is that not you doing it?” Matt demanded, and a soft rumble- almost like a goddamn purr- emanated from the guy’s chest again.

“Venom, don’t, I don’t think he’s going to do anything.” He muttered, quieter, and another purr came from him. “No, he’s not a bad guy.”

“It- it thinks I’m a bad guy?” Matt asked, this close to just losing it.

“What in the shit is going on, Matt?” Foggy cried out, unable to take it anymore.

“How can you hear him?” The guy asked Matt. “Like- can you hear what he’s saying?”

“It’s talking???” Matt’s voice went higher. This was all very distressing.

“What the fuck are you hearing???”

“You’re like- purring. Like a damn cat.” The purring got louder, and Matt flinched. He hated this. “Oh God, please stop.”

“He says no.” The guy told him, like that meant anything.

The slithering had calmed and now all Matt could focus on was the gentle but steady rumble that only he could hear. It was like the tiny little slime things in his body were all centralized inside his ribcage, and were vibrating hard enough to make a noise.

“What is it?” Matt asked. “It’s like there’s something in your body, like a bunch of tiny snakes. Like- like a parasite, but worse. Way, way worse.”

“ **PARASITE**?”

Something came out of his body. Like, it came out of him- seeping through his pores on his shoulder and sticking to his skin like glue. It reeked of the unidentifiable scent and made Matt’s nostrils tingle unpleasantly. It sounded oily and wet and mad.

Matt flinched when it appeared and Karen screamed.

“Whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck.” Foggy hissed out, grabbing Karen and moving her farther away while she fumbled for her purse.

“Venom.” The guy warned calmly but firmly, and turned his head to look at the fucking thing coming out of him like it was normal.

“ **Eddie**!” The thing- Venom?- cried. It’s voice was rough and gravely and echoed around the room in the most unpleasant way. “ **He said** -“

“I know what he said, but remember when I said to not doing anything stupid and reckless like showing yourself to people who don’t understand Us?” The man, Eddie, chastised the thing.

“ **But he’s being rude to us**.”

“But now we gotta do the whole explanation thing. Again.”

Venom rumbled unhappily, and Matt grimaced. It sounded so wrong. “Stop that.”

He felt the thing turn it’s weird snake head towards him. “ **You don’t like it when we make noises**.”

“No, I don’t, so stop.” Matt grumbled. He heard the click behind him and inclined his head towards Karen. “I- I think it’s okay, Karen. I don’t think this guy’s a threat.” Karen hesitated, but the click of the safety being turned back on echoed in his ears and he nodded.

“Yeah, no, no I don’t- I don’t want to hurt anyone.” Eddie’s hands went up in a nonthreatening manner.

“ **Can we eat them**?” Venom asked, making Matt bare his teeth and go into a protective stance again.

“No! No, V, we talked about this, I swear we did.” Eddie hissed, and the alien just hummed and was suddenly gone from the room.

Matt strained his ears and heard it moving through the man’s body. He heard soft, smooth sound of it going through his muscles, his tendons, weaving around his bones and finally settling back in his ribcage. He blocked out all other sounds, getting a feel for exactly where Venom was.

Using the heartbeat as a source of echolocation, he heard something moving right around where his heart would be. It was hard to tell exactly, with all the liquids moving and natural human body sounds, but there was a strange mass around his heart. It almost muffled the sound of the heart beating.

“Huh.” Matt muttered, hearing Venom settle and begin to rumble again. If he listened really, really closely, he could hear the rumbles start and begin erratically. Like a hum, like someone trying to hum words into a kazoo. Like a mumble you couldn’t understand, but could still understand was someone speaking.

He pressed his fingers to the ribcage, feeling it along with hearing it. This made them jolt- the body and the alien. The humming paused, then he heard it move closer and closer to the sternum. He could hear it more clearly the further away from the lungs and stomach, and listened to the soft sounds it gave off. Like a thick liquid next to a bass boosted speaker, or a bucket of worms that vibrated. It was so gross but so interesting to listen to.

They suddenly gave off a loud, horrible growl that he felt in his own chest, and Matt flinched away, almost tumbling onto the hard floor if Foggy hadn’t caught him. He made a sad noise from being separated from the cool sounds, but heard a _hmhmhm_ from the them, like a laugh.

“Why’d you do that?” He didn’t whine. He was a grown man who did his taxes and didn’t whine.

They manifested themself again, this time nearer to Eddie’s collarbone. “You got too close to us. Also, it was really funny.” Eddie snorted.

Matt scoffed. “And you call me rude.” Venom laughed again and sunk back into the skin of their host. “Okay, seriously, what the hell is up with that thing?”

“They aren’t a thing.” Eddie said, indignant. “They’re, uh. An alien.”

“An alien parasite??” Foggy asked, and Matt flinched at the growl that came from his chest again.

“They don’t like it when you call them that.” Eddie explained. “But, I mean, yeah. Kinda. It’s more… symbiotic that that.”

“Symbiotic.” Karen repeated flatly. “So like, you help them and they help you?”

“Got it in one, Ms. Page.”

Matt tilted his head sharply. “You know her?”

“I mean, what kind of journalist would I be if I didn’t know who Karen Page was?” Eddie grinned.

“Wait, I know you.” Foggy spoke up, pointing a finger at him. Matt turned to face him. “You’re Eddie Brock!”

“Oh my gosh, Fogs, you’re right.” Karen sounded a little starstruck. “I- I heard what happened over there, with the Life Foundation. Shit, I even did a story on it. I totally agreed with you from the start, Drake was fishy.”

“Hey, thanks, you know, I appreciate it.” Eddie said.

“Am I the only one who doesn’t know him?” Matt asked.

“Dude, how do you not know Eddie Brock? I watched his show like, all the time!” Foggy sounded insulted, almost. “And don’t tell me you don’t recognize his voice, I know you can recognize my heartbeat from across the city.”

Matt flushed, a little ashamed. “I- I kinda just starting tuning all your shows out after hearing you watch the entirety of Sex in the City during finals, Fogs. Sorry.”

Foggy made a wounded noise, but Karen came to Matt’s rescue. “He was the one who outed the Life Foundation, Matt. I was ranting about them a few months ago, about how they were seriously sketchy but I couldn’t just fly halfway across the country to investigate.”

“Oh!” Matt remembered now. “Yeah, I remember now. Nice work.”

“Thank you, thank you. I, uh, like your work too. With bringing down Fisk, and all.”

Matt smiled. “Oh, it was nothing. Just some legal work, it’s mostly because of Karen that he got taken down.”

“Matt,” Karen said, and he felt her face warm up. “I- I didn’t do it alone, you know that. You and Foggy were amazing, too-”

“No, don’t get me wrong, I know you all had a major hand in it,” Eddie smiled nicely, his entire body relaxed, but Matt heard his heart begin to speed up. “But, I was mostly talking about Mr. Murdock’s work as the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.”

It was like the room dropped ten degrees. Foggy and Karen were left speechless. Matt tensed up completely. He worked his throat a bit, clenched and unclenched his fists, before deciding on what to say.

He took a few steps forward, coming face-to-face with Eddie. He didn’t move an inch, but the symbiote inside his rib cage rattled violently at the threatening posture.

“What do you want.” Not a question. A demand. He pitched his voice low, roughened it, made it really sound like the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. The voice change made Foggy shudder and everyone’s heart picked up.

“Wow,” Eddie breathed. “I just- I didn’t think you’d give it up that easily.”

“Tell me.” Matt wasn’t playing anymore, he had more than just himself on the line here.

“Nothing.” He said, and Matt let the disbelief show. “Really. I was just curious, mostly. I mean, Peter let it slip but I didn’t expect it to really be _you_.”

Matt’s eyebrows went up at the name, and Eddie backtracked so hard he almost fell over. “Uhhh, I mean- I just like, my friend, um, Patrick. Patrick, yeah, not- not Peter. Sorry. My mistake.

“Really. And how did your friend Patrick know?”

“He- um. Ah, shit. Listen, it’s not his fault, he was all drugged up-”

“You drugged him?” Foggy asked, his heart skipping a beat unpleasantly.

“No! No, fuck no, dude. C’mon. I’m not gonna drug Spider-Man.” Eddie put his palms up passively.

Matt made a high, pained noise in his throat. “You know that, too?”

“It- uhm, it may have come up. Once or twice.” Eddie scratched the back of his head. “Look, I’m an investigator, I investigate, it’s what I do. And if uh… if I find out a few choice superheroes identities, I’m not about to go blabbing, okay?”

“No! Not okay!” Foggy said, stepping forward. “You can’t just be like ‘Hey, I have an alien inside of me, also I know about your super secret night shift that’s illegal, we cool?’”

“I think I just did?”

“Mr. Brock,” Karen said, also stepping forward, past Matt and Foggy. Matt made a noise, but Foggy put his hand on his shoulder to keep him from pulling Karen back into his protection. “If I came into your office, told you I knew about your little friend, and tried to be friends, how would you react?” She put on her Voice, the Voice that she used to ask dangerous people dangerous things.

“I’d eat you.” Said Eddie, except he also didn’t. The second he said the words, his face scrunched up. “I hate it when you do that. Yeah, okay, it’s not inaccurate, but it’s also not not inaccurate. Listen, it is way more nuanced than you’re making it out to be. I know you know what I mean.”

Matt realized quickly that he wasn’t talking to anyone in the room.

“So, you understand what situation you’re in?” Karen asked sweetly, tilting her head. Her hand was in her purse. “Because let me tell you this, if you ever threaten Matt or Peter or anyone involved in either of their lives, if you ever try to blackmail them, you will regret it. Both of you. Understand?”

Eddie smelled scared. His heart said he was slightly turned on.

“Understood, Ms. Page.” He said weakly. “But, really, I’m not going to do anything. Swear. I’m- I’m sure that as an investigative reporter, you can also understand being curious?”

“Of course,” Karen nodded. “But I’m not so curious as to go into a lion’s den and threaten the lion itself just to see if it’s really a lion.” Matt knew that was such a fucking lie, he would’ve known even if he didn’t know who she was.

“Bullshit!” Foggy called her out.

Karen flushed. “I am trying to threaten a guy who knows who Matt is, this is not Karen call out time!”

“It’s- it’s really unnecessary for you to uh, threaten us. Really, Peter’s a friend. He’s a good kid, just not very reliable, uh, under the influence.” Eddie said, smiling nervously. “He took kind of a hard hit the other night, and DP and I patched him up but I only had prescription painkillers on me and-“

“DP? Deadpool??” Matt’s voice went to a pitch he never thought possible. “Wade was with you??? You know Wade????”

“ **Wade is good. Wade is a friend**.” Venom piped up.

“We know Wade, we’ve been working with him for a while? Probably since we’ve moved here.” Eddie thought back. “Yeah. Met up with him a couple weeks after we got here.”

Matt was too busy yelling into his phone to listen to Eddie regale the story of first meeting Wade. “Send message to Team Red groupchat.”

“What would you like to say?” His phone asked.

“Why doesn’t anyone tell me anything anymore. Why is Eddie Brock and his pet tapeworm in my office terrorizing me.

“Hey!” Venom and Eddie said at the same time, both hurt.

Matt sent the message. His phone dinged immediately.

“From, Peter: It wasn’t my fault! I was on drugs! You can’t hold what I said against me in court!”

Matt sighed heavily.

“From, Wade: What do tapeworms even sound like? Do they smell like anything? Can you be like a tapeworm sniffer dog?”

Karen tried to hide her laugh but failed rather spectacularly. Matt groaned and hid his face in his hands.

“Send text to Team Red,”

“What would you like to send?”

“I hate this fucking family.”


End file.
